Entrelac Blues

The first day of the Knitting Olympics did not go well.

I'm afraid that the pattern for the Entrelac Bag I'm working on was written for people who have some idea of how to actually knit entrelac. I struggled on my own for hours and couldn't figure out how to knit the middle squares on the second row. After about 6 hours of work, I had what looked like 4 Tibetan prayer flags flying on my circular, one with a little blue triangle stuck on the side.

The good news? Having a lot of knitting friends means I got a lot of offers of assistance. The bad news? Because the power went out at my house during the whole process, I didn't find out about these offers until almost 4:30 pm. I ended up stopping at a friend's house on my way to pick up the kids from school. She couldn't figure out the pattern at first, either, but by laying the pieces out on the table and looking at a tiny, fuzzy picture of the pre-felted finished product, we were able at last to figure out where to pick up the stitches to start the first middle square. Once I figured that out, the rest of the pattern became clear.

Question: Assume you have two squares next to each other on a needle (let's call them Square 1 and Square 2). The instructions tell you to do some knitting on the edge of Square 1. Then the instructions tell you to pick up stitches on the "next square." Wouldn't you think they meant Square 2? Therein lay my confusion. "Next Square" did not mean Square 2, it actually meant the edge of Square 1 adjacent to where I'd just finished knitting. BIG difference. Can you tell I'm still a little annoyed?

Happily, once you figure out how to add new squares, you are doing entrelac! It's actually quite easy. I'm still fascinated by how you knit straight across, but end up making a diamond (because the square is in between two catty-corner squares). Intellectually, I understand what's happening, but it's still like a little magic trick. "Ladies and Gentlemen, watch as I knit across these flat stitches. Presto! Now it's a diamond!" Cue applause.

I only have 3 rows of diamonds left and the main portion of the bag will be finished. Somehow, I thought it would take longer. I'm going to try to finish the Lucy bag within the deadline as well, and if that's done early, then I'll work on the DNA scarf. Yes, I sound optimistic, but if you could turn straight rows of knitting into a diamond attached to other diamonds, wouldn't you feel like you could do anything?